Posted 2 years ago on Feb. 7, 2013, 3:01 a.m. EST by WSmith
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Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration

ACLU | November 2, 2011

Executive Summary

The imprisonment of human beings at record levels is both a moral failure and an economic one — especially at a time when more and more Americans are struggling to make ends meet and when state governments confront enormous fiscal crises. This report finds, however, that mass incarceration provides a gigantic windfall for one special interest group — the private prison industry — even as current incarceration levels harm the country as a whole. While the nation's unprecedented rate of imprisonment deprives individuals of freedom, wrests loved ones from their families, and drains the resources of governments, communities, and taxpayers, the private prison industry reaps lucrative rewards. As the public good suffers from mass incarceration, private prison companies obtain more and more government dollars, and private prison executives at the leading companies rake in enormous compensation packages, in some cases totaling millions of dollars.

The Spoils of Mass Incarceration

The United States imprisons more people — both per capita and in absolute terms — than any other nation in the world, including Russia, China, and Iran. Over the past four decades, imprisonment in the United States has increased explosively, spurred by criminal laws that impose steep sentences and curtail the opportunity to earn probation and parole. The current incarceration rate deprives record numbers of individuals of their liberty, disproportionately affects people of color, and has at best a minimal effect on public safety. Meanwhile, the crippling cost of imprisoning increasing numbers of Americans saddles government budgets with rising debt and exacerbates the current fiscal crises confronting states across the nation.

Leading private prison companies essentially admit that their business model depends on high rates of incarceration. For example, in a 2010 Annual Report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company, stated: "The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by . . . leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices . . . ."

As incarceration rates skyrocket, the private prison industry expands at exponential rates, holding ever more people in its prisons and jails, and generating massive profits. Private prisons for adults were virtually non-existent until the early 1980s, but the number of prisoners in private prisons increased by approximately 1600% between 1990 and 2009. Today, for-profit companies are responsible for approximately 6% of state prisoners, 16% of federal prisoners, and, according to one report, nearly half of all immigrants detained by the federal government. In 2010, the two largest private prison companies alone received nearly $3 billion dollars in revenue, and their top executives, according to one source, each received annual compensation packages worth well over $3 million.

A Danger to State Finances

While supporters of privatization tout the idea that governments can save money through private facilities, the evidence for supposed cost savings is mixed at best. As state governments across the nation confront deep fiscal deficits, the assertion that private prisons demonstrably reduce the costs of incarceration can be dangerous and irresponsible. Such claims may lure states into building private prisons or privatizing existing ones rather than reducing incarceration rates and limiting corrections spending through serious criminal justice reform.

This year, advocates of for-profit prisons trotted out privatization schemes as a supposed answer to budgetary woes in numerous states:

Arizona has announced plans to award 5,000 additional prison beds to private contractors, despite a recent statement by the Arizona Auditor General that for-profit imprisonment in Arizona may cost more than incarceration in publicly-operated facilities. Arizona's Department of Corrections is the only large agency in that state not subject to a budget cut in fiscal year 2012 — in fact, the Department's budget increased by $10 million. According to a news report, private prison employees and corporate officers contributed money to Governor Jan Brewer's reelection campaign, and high ranking Brewer Administration officials previously worked as private prison lobbyists.

Florida has responded to exploding incarceration costs largely through increasing reliance on private prisons. Although the assertion that private prisons save taxpayer money is highly questionable, supporters of privatization, according to a recent news report, claim that privatization in Florida is necessary to rein in the prison system's budget, which stood at $2.3 billion in 2010. A recent editorial in the Orlando Sentinel expressed the view that privatization "has eclipsed and shelved potentially more fruitful, cost-effective changes. One of them is sentencing reform." On September 30, 2011, a Florida court enjoined the Department of Corrections from implementing the privatization of prisons in 18 counties, finding that the planned privatization failed to comply with procedures mandated by state law. The court stated, "[t]he decision to issue only one [request for proposal] and only one contract for all 29 prison facilities [subject to proposed privatization] was based on convenience and speed, … rather than on any demonstrated savings or benefit advantage."

Ohio recently announced that it will become, on December 31, 2011, the first state in the nation to sell a publicly operated prison, Lake Erie Correctional Facility, to a private company, CCA. Notably, the head of Ohio's corrections department had served as a managing director of CCA. The claim that prison privatization demonstrably reduces costs and trims government budgets may detract from the critical work of reducing the state's prison population.

Louisiana narrowly defeated a proposal, pushed by Governor Bobby Jindal in a desperate attempt to generate short-term revenue, to sell off three state prisons to private companies. The Louisiana House Appropriations Committee blocked the bill by a vote of 13-12, with legislators expressing deep concern about the wisdom of selling off the state's assets.

The federal government is in the midst of a private prison expansion spree, driven primarily by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency that locks up roughly 400,000 immigrants each year and spends over $1.9 billion annually on custody operations. ICE now intends to create a new network of massive immigration detention centers, managed largely by private companies, in states including New Jersey, Texas, Florida, California and Illinois. According to a news report, in August 2011, ICE's plans to send 1,250 immigration detainees to Essex County, New Jersey threatened to unravel amid allegations that a private prison company seeking the contract, whose executives enjoyed close ties to Governor Chris Christie, received "special treatment" from the county. The fiscal crisis confronting the federal government, however, has done nothing to dampen Washington's spending binge on privatized immigration detention.

Atrocious Conditions

CONTINUED:

Part One of this Report traces the rise of the for-profit prison industry over the past 30 years, demonstrating that private prisons reaped lucrative spoils as incarceration rates reached historic levels. Part Two focuses on the supposed benefits associated with private prisons, showing that the view that private prison companies provide demonstrable economic benefits and humane facilities is debatable at best. Part Three discusses the tactics private prison companies have used to obtain control of more and more human beings and taxpayer dollars.

The time to halt the expansion of for-profit incarceration is now. The evidence that private prisons provide savings compared to publicly operated facilities is highly questionable, and certain studies point to worse conditions in for-profit facilities. The private prison industry helped to create the mass incarceration crisis and feeds off of this social ill. Private prisons cannot be part of the solution — economic or ethical — to the problem of mass incarceration.

Six million people are under correctional supervision in the U.S.—more than were in Stalin’s gulags.

A prison is a trap for catching time. Good reporting appears often about the inner life of the American prison, but the catch is that American prison life is mostly undramatic—the reported stories fail to grab us, because, for the most part, nothing happens. One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich is all you need to know about Ivan Denisovich, because the idea that anyone could live for a minute in such circumstances seems impossible; one day in the life of an American prison means much less, because the force of it is that one day typically stretches out for decades. It isn’t the horror of the time at hand but the unimaginable sameness of the time ahead that makes prisons unendurable for their inmates. The inmates on death row in Texas are called men in “timeless time,” because they alone aren’t serving time: they aren’t waiting out five years or a decade or a lifetime. The basic reality of American prisons is not that of the lock and key but that of the lock and clock.

142 Comments

About 6 months ago, a county near mine came out with the statement in the newspaper that they wanted to find out if it was more cost effective to privatize their jail. It is 2013. Same shit as they did in Florida.

The state plans to outsource prison food to Aramark, a private vendor already under investigation in Kentucky for multiple contract violations, including serving old food that had not been stored properly and overbilling the state.

That's another area that needs to get verbally abused and private medical/mental health in prisons.

Getting everyone to vote will bring more support for 3rd parties. You want 3rd party success? Then push for election/campaign changes, and a larger turnout.

We force people to perform jury duty, and pay taxes. 1 hour every year to vote does not equate to fascism, that's you pathetically trying to suppress the vote in a desperate attempt to protect libertarian/conservative policy goals.

The U.S. imprisons around 730 in every 100,000 people — the highest incarcerated population in the world — Department of Justice data shows. Once again, the U.S. has beat any other nation in terms of its number of prisoners and prisons. There are currently around 2.2 million people behind bars, “equal to a city the size of Houston,” noted Bloomberg News. There are 4,575 prisons in operation in the U.S., more than four times the number of second-place Russia at 1,029.

According to California Prison Focus, “no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens.” Ample studies in recent years have detailed the swift rise nationwide in the for-profit prison industry.

Bloomberg’s “chart of the day” Monday illustrates U.S. incarceration rates in comparison to other countries (via International Centre for Prison Studies):

Food shop at the local grower's markets. Clothes shop from charities. I just got my "new" hiking boots from Save the Children fund's shop for five dollars. I did buy a new backpack, and did the research on where it is made, to avoid the possibility of child labour being involved. Socks and jocks are new, of course, and it's difficult to find them locally made, but not impossible. My new longjohns came from Hungary, of all places.

But, I do use a vehicle and tools for work, and I do fly when I have to. And I pay for internet use, which is for convenience, but not unavoidable.

Okay, live the ALT consumer game instead of the national corporate consumer game whenever possible.

Could I suggest a term? "Selective corporate consumption". Certainly something which will be a consumer talent IF we are to prevail over blind, capitalistic consumerism created by media manipulation.

Doing this really well, quickly, requires really developed communications that are centralized having absolute integrity. Or, doing at all is a hit or miss (as we are), BUT, locally communicated and demonstrated.

I do it like you do it but would very much like to see a really developed consumer advocacy site that consolidated info about products, corporations, etc.

I think we need the usenet back. This piece of crap .com is aiding and abetting our rape.

Just that in 15 year no one has made a site that uses our opinion of our discussion relating to our productive agreement, to order the information making the best visible immediately, is kind of mind boggling.

Prior to 1995, the only internet in existence for Americans and others in the world was the usenet. In 1995 .com was created pushing the usenet into obscurity.

For me it disappeared, I use Mac's. Mac's did not interface with the usenet without certain data entered into special software which was only available from the IP. PC's apparently could simply login(?) Recently, I heard, all of it disappeared with millions of gigs of data of all types accumulated for 15+ years.

Yes, as much as I respect RT news, they seem to have followed more of the infotainment style that is a distraction, generally, to the content. At the other end of the scale, is SBS World news, which is so dry it puts me to sleep.

When we involve with corporatism year after year without looking at what life can be without it while also not socially examining the powerful social structures that have historically sought to control populations by selecting knowledge for them, or forbidding certain knowledge to them, it turns out it could be things that really matters.

The class that is winning is using the unconscious mind for cooperation and unity. Unfortunately, in the compulsive secrecy natural to unconscious group operations, many have been heavily infiltrated by very dark and de-evolutionary forces over a few centuries.

Are you aware of how global societies of the past used the unconscious? What they used it for? Unlikely.

We, the melting pot of America relinquished even recognition of what existed before the written word and now have a hard time believing anything that is not written.

In upstate NY where I am from you either move, work for the county/state govt in some capacity this means as a prison guard if you don't have a degree or a highway/village worker, or you work at the raceway casino, or you are a drug dealer/hustler. That is it. Oh you can work for walmart or home depot.

Slogan (from you it sounds so dirty) as if you RepubliCons did anything for the 99% beyond slogans/BS ever. I think rallying call or cry might be better. You only care about the failure of democracy. And attempting to drag or smear anything good and progressive down to Con false equivalency. Only a fool/Con would do that!

Have you ever even been to an oraganizing meeting for a candidate/party/action/cause? l would love to see you stop the meeting to state it shouldnt be called slogan during the meeting...it should be a rallying call.

Ya, Genny Cream Ale is still around. I still like it, cant find it in Tampa. Or Labatts either.

Kodak has pretty much dumped on the whole city. Everyone assumes they were late to the digital game, but they werent, it was just bad management.

That being said, we are the world leader in fuel cell tech, which is awesome. And theres a ton of schools, so the population is pretty smart, compared to other areas. And pretty liberal as well, I had an apartment right off Park Ave for a while, great place to live.

All in all, the ROC was sheltered from the housing bubble so that avoided the crash, which means the UE rate was a bit lower for a bit (no one wants to invest in ROC) . But Im sure its leveled out by now.

Most of my group still lives there. Life goes on. Garbage plates, buffaloe wings, and late nights on Alexander street.

You are both correct. If the unions and the corporations both stand to gain power, influence, and wealth by having higher incarceration rates (which they do), they will both stand together for higher incarceration rates. This is just common sense.

There is no, ZERO, parity with Multinational Corporations and anemic and persecuted US trade Unions. That is Malarkey (utter bull shit) the likes of "The Liberal Media," Fox "News," "patriotic" RepubliCons and "humanitarian" Private Prisons.

Unions want jobs, we all do in this 1%-RepubliCon contrived Unemployment tsunami, but not at the cost of falsely imprisoning fellow Americans. Profits at any cost are strictly a "Free Market" interpretation of "common sense."

So if you are the leadership of the NCEU, you want jobs for your members. How do those jobs get created?

You honestly can't see how a lot of goals of the NCEU and the prison industrial complex are aligned? The only thing they have disagreement on is how to divvy up all the profits made by imprisoning people.

RepubliCons and the greed-addled 1% they worship and serve cannot conceive of a means too immoral to justify in achieving an end. But workers do every single day. That's why they go to work instead of cheat, rob, steal, defraud or harm other people. Cons just can't understand this, is this your problem?

Again, I agree with a lot of what you say. The workers really don't have any control in it. They take the jobs available to them. They likely would like to hold on to those jobs as long as they can but that is besides the point.

The leadership of the NCEU, however, is an integral and important part of the prison industrial complex. You change the subject and, typical of most Americans, try to turn in this into a two-party argument. What I would rather hear, however, is how you think that the interests of the NCEU and the prison industrial complex are not both advanced when more people are imprisoned?

The corporations, unions, and ultimately the workers, all benefit when more people are imprisoned. Hence the term 'complex' in prison industrial complex. Why would any of those players want to see less people imprisoned?